Rent-to-own PCs surreptitiously captured users’ most intimate moments

Spyware installed on more than 420,000 PCs even recorded customers having sex.

Seven rent-to-own companies and a software developer have settled federal charges that they used spyware to monitor the locations, passwords, and other intimate details of more than 420,000 customers who leased computers.

The software, known as PC Rental Agent, was developed by Pennsylvania-based DesignerWare. It was licensed by more than 1,617 rent-to-own stores in the US, Canada, and Australia to report the physical location of rented PCs. A feature known as Detective Mode also allowed licensees to surreptitiously monitor the activities of computer users. Managers of rent-to-own stores could use the feature to turn on webcams so anyone in front of the machine would secretly be recorded. Managers could also use the software to log keystrokes and take screen captures.

"In numerous instances, data gathered by Detective Mode has revealed private, confidential, and personal details about the computer user," officials with the Federal Trade Commission wrote in a civil complaint filed earlier this year. "For example, keystroke logs have displayed usernames and passwords for access to e-mail accounts, social media websites, and financial institutions."

In some cases, webcam activations captured images of children, individuals not fully clothed, and people engaged in sexual activities, the complaint alleged. Rental agreements never disclosed the information that was collected, FTC lawyers said.

PC Rental Agent also had the capability to display fake registration pages for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, and Yahoo Messenger. When customers entered their names, addresses, and other personal information in the forms, the data was sent to DesignerWare servers and then e-mailed to the rent-to-own licensees.

In addition to DesignerWare, the FTC action named Billings, Montana-based Aspen Way Inc.; Russellville, Kentucky-based B Stamper Enterprises, which operated under the name Premier Rental Purchase; Nashville, Tennessee-based C.A.L.M. Ventures Inc., which also operated under the name Premier Rental Purchase; Tampa, Florida-based J.A.G. Rents, which operated under the name ColorTyme; Dallas, Texas-based Red Zone Investment Group, which also operated under the name ColorTyme; Marion, Ohio-based Showplace Inc., which operated under the name Showplace Rent-to-Own and Showplace Lease/Purchase; and Lake Bluff, Illinois-based Watershed Development Corp., which operated under the names Watershed and Aaron’s Sales & Lease Ownership.

Under the proposed settlement, the defendants agreed to curb data-collecting software on rental PCs and also to stop using deception to gather any information from consumers. The settlement is subject to public comment for 30 days, after which the FTC will decide whether to make it final.

The software, known as PC Rental Agent, was developed by Pennsylvania-based DesignerWare. It was licensed by more than 1,617 rent-to-own stores in the US, Canada, and Australia to report the physical location of rented PCs. A feature known as Detective Mode also allowed licensees to surreptitiously monitor the activities of computer users. Managers of rent-to-own stores could use the feature to turn on webcams so anyone in front of the machine would secretly be recorded. Managers could also use the software to log keystrokes and take screen captures.

I wonder if the people who design this stuff as well as the folks who license and employ it actually have to actively think about breathing. I don't know what privacy laws are like in Australia, but they're pretty strict in Canada, and this software certainly didn't do well here in the US either. And the customers, I'm sure they were enthused to have all of their personal and private stuff like images taken by webcams and passwords to banks and what not being captured and sent God only knows where.

Quote:

Under the proposed settlement, the defendants agreed to curb data-collecting software on rental PCs and also to stop using deception to gather any information from consumers. The settlement is subject to public comment for 30 days, after which the FTC will decide whether to make it final.

Seems like everyone here got off easy. Why not kick in their doors and levy bone crushing fines? Oh, no copyright infringement. Just a total invasion of people's privacy without any disclosure of what these folks are doing. Nice.

Because there is a difference in the creepiness level if that were the case. Also, I just know if there are naked adults, there are also chances for seeing unclothed kids. My boys love running around the house after bath time in less than full clothes. Would I want someone looking at me? Of course not, I'd be pissed. Would I want someone looking at my sons? FUCK no, I'm coming after you like Dexter to take care of the garbage. They won't find your body. It's a parental gene that gets triggered.

Imagine a kidnapper, pedophile (assuming that a Venn diagram of images of children and images of partially dressed individuals has any crossover), or—as a step of extreme pedophilia—a child rapist getting that information. It's a major concern to any parents. Not only will they know what the child looks like, they will know where the child lives. If the information leak is bad enough, they'd know further details such as their school location and class schedules, in addition to possibly their parents' schedules (yay Google Calendar) to find out when the child might be home alone.

What's wrong with these people? Have you ever heard of the word "privacy"? This is same with disclosing some private information to people you don't know. Its a sham people still manage to trust these establishments. If they only knew..

Build it yourself. Get the media for the OS of your choice and install it yourself.

From there, follow common sense and don't get the machine infested by malware.

Problem is that people with common sense don't get computers—or much of anything else—from a rent-to-own place.

"Here, let me charge you twice as much for something which will be worth half it's current value by the time you pay it off, and be able to claim it's cheaper by not showing you the final interest due figure."

Seven rent-to-own companies and a software developer have settled federal charges that they used spyware to monitor the locations, passwords, and other intimate details of more than 420,000 customers who leased computers.

PC Rental Agent also had the capability to display fake registration pages for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, and Yahoo Messenger. When customers entered their names, addresses, and other personal information in the forms, the data was sent to DesignerWare servers and then e-mailed to the rent-to-own licensees.

Oh come on! If those features don't scream criminal intent to commit identity theft, I don't know what does.

Watch the settlement state that those companies neither admit nor deny wrong doing.

I want to turn myself in to a corporation that way I can say F'u US legal system, laws don't apply to me anymore. Not like I don't already say F'u... just would be nice to have that extra bit of comfort knowing that as a corporation I can always settle without admitting I did anything wrong. Just another example of a toothless legal system.

Watch the settlement state that those companies neither admit nor deny wrong doing.

I want to turn myself in to a corporation that way I can say F'u US legal system, laws don't apply to me anymore. Not like I don't already say F'u... just would be nice to have that extra bit of comfort knowing that as a corporation I can always settle without admitting I did anything wrong. Just another example of a toothless legal system.

File a name to be a LLC. Should only cost between $50-$300 bucks depending upon state. Do everything in the LLC's name and just file for bankruptcy if anybody sues with no repercussions.

As if rental PCs weren't shady enough. They go a pull this and get even shadier. I'm not surprised sadly I assumed they where doing stuff like this the entire time. "rental & rent to own is a joke for a pc" never knew anyone that rented a PC you'd be better of buying one and paying monthly if you can't afford it. Barrow money from somewhere else and buy a real computer. from a real store.

I hope lots of people Sue them! Who ever wrote the software and whoever rented the infected PCs to people. plus put some people in jail who are responsible this is a horrible and unspeakable act. And needs to be thought about in prison not with just a fine.

Yeah, I agree with the others that there ought to be a huge stink raised about this "settlement" if somebody isn't going to jail for a long time for this. You can't "fix" fraud, invasion of privacy, and likely identity theft with a "settlement".

Hopefully the settlement doesn't prevent the people who were captured on the webcam from filing civil suits and drilling this company into the ground.

Build it yourself. Get the media for the OS of your choice and install it yourself.

From there, follow common sense and don't get the machine infested by malware.

Or at least hire someone to do it for you. Even a crap $300 Dell on a payment plan wouldn't have this sort of garbage on it. I'll agree with the previous post about people with common sense and people buying via rent to own not really overlapping much. I worked for a rto place for maybe 6 months when I was young and broke, and not yet finished college. They pay remarkably well because they have a terribly predatory business model and make a killing. Our one store in a strip mall easily made a million a year renting out furniture, big screen tvs, computers, and stereos. Their method was to blanket poor and immigrant neighborhoods with ads and push the fact that you can have great stuff with no credit check. The problem was that you spend less time delivering stuff than you do calling people to pester them for missed payments and going out to repo things that the customer can't afford anymore. Then a month later when the customer gets paid, they come back and rent a new item and you let them because, hey...money.

I made it a month before I started looking for a new gig and ended up taking a way lower paying job elsewhere as soon as I found one. The whole thing was just depressing and the boss was a guy I went to high school with who was living in a nice big house with his family and inviting us to go to his church every Sunday. Whole thing just made me feel scuzzy.

Because there is a difference in the creepiness level if that were the case. Also, I just know if there are naked adults, there are also chances for seeing unclothed kids. My boys love running around the house after bath time in less than full clothes. Would I want someone looking at me? Of course not, I'd be pissed. Would I want someone looking at my sons? FUCK no, I'm coming after you like Dexter to take care of the garbage. They won't find your body. It's a parental gene that gets triggered.

Oh dear. You better not go to the beach then, because you'll see naked kids.

Build it yourself. Get the media for the OS of your choice and install it yourself.

From there, follow common sense and don't get the machine infested by malware.

Or at least hire someone to do it for you. Even a crap $300 Dell on a payment plan wouldn't have this sort of garbage on it. I'll agree with the previous post about people with common sense and people buying via rent to own not really overlapping much. I worked for a rto place for maybe 6 months when I was young and broke, and not yet finished college. They pay remarkably well because they have a terribly predatory business model and make a killing. Our one store in a strip mall easily made a million a year renting out furniture, big screen tvs, computers, and stereos. Their method was to blanket poor and immigrant neighborhoods with ads and push the fact that you can have great stuff with no credit check. The problem was that you spend less time delivering stuff than you do calling people to pester them for missed payments and going out to repo things that the customer can't afford anymore. Then a month later when the customer gets paid, they come back and rent a new item and you let them because, hey...money.

I made it a month before I started looking for a new gig and ended up taking a way lower paying job elsewhere as soon as I found one. The whole thing was just depressing and the boss was a guy I went to high school with who was living in a nice big house with his family and inviting us to go to his church every Sunday. Whole thing just made me feel scuzzy.

Did 2 years in a major RTO chain myself. Not surprised this was happening, though the one I was working for was not doing this. I did advocate numerous times that we should be installing limited functionality software to be able to lock out PCs and laptops we sold as well as track their location should a customer default on their payments. Then again, I advocated for the software to stop there and have absolutely no spyware type functionality, an easy uninstallation once the item was paid off, and for there to be full disclosure that such software was installed to the customer.

It was appalling how many people would pay $120 to get a laptop out of the store so they could go list it on Craigslist. If you were a good read on character, and saw the warning signals, you just wouldn't sign off on the lease. New customers could never understand why we were required to deliver something like a laptop to their home rather than let them pick it up.

"Under the proposed settlement, the defendants agreed to curb data-collecting software on rental PCs and also to stop using deception to gather any information from consumers. "

So absolutely, completely, ^&%$ all for a punishment while they lock poeple up for recording someone getting arrested in a public place and with their knowledge due to abuse of "wiretap laws"; these assholes do mass intentional spying on incredibly private data, even filming people having sex and they got nothing, no jail time, not even fines? The people affected should individually sue these scumbags into the ground, then some but they're most likely poorer so good luck with that that's why the FTC cares so little.

Selective enforcement of the laws, and in the case of the abuse of the wiretap laws, selective enforcement of an irrelevant law twisted to be used to terrorize people. Do literally x100,000 worse and you get nothing.

The FTC is a useless, biased, incompetent and criminal.

Edit: If you live in the States please go use the public comment they are having.

Because there is a difference in the creepiness level if that were the case. Also, I just know if there are naked adults, there are also chances for seeing unclothed kids. My boys love running around the house after bath time in less than full clothes. Would I want someone looking at me? Of course not, I'd be pissed. Would I want someone looking at my sons? FUCK no, I'm coming after you like Dexter to take care of the garbage. They won't find your body. It's a parental gene that gets triggered.

Oh dear. You better not go to the beach then, because you'll see naked kids.

If my kids are naked in a public place that's one thing. If they are naked in the "privacy" of their own home, that is almost unavoidable (showers, finding clothes, etc).

If I can't change my kids or myself in my own home without fear of being watched, that's a sad day.

Even sadder because they want to watch an old fat geek change. *shivers*

As if rental PCs weren't shady enough. They go a pull this and get even shadier. I'm not surprised sadly I assumed they where doing stuff like this the entire time. "rental & rent to own is a joke for a pc" never knew anyone that rented a PC you'd be better of buying one and paying monthly if you can't afford it. Barrow money from somewhere else and buy a real computer. from a real store.

I hope lots of people Sue them! Who ever wrote the software and whoever rented the infected PCs to people. plus put some people in jail who are responsible this is a horrible and unspeakable act. And needs to be thought about in prison not with just a fine.

I would be on the side that the developers should be at the top of the list for fines and prison sentences. This isn't a matter of a tool like bolt cutters being turned to illegal use, this is a tool designed specifically with ethically and legally wrong intent. If anything the RTO businesses deserve less blame because they were sold a product they may have been convinced by sales people was legal. Due diligence should get both sides for their acts, but this is a pretty clear case for software developers to have liability for intentional violation.

I'm wondering why my government isn't slamming these bastards... Given the proposed "For the Children!!!!" crap that comes out of the Australian parliament all the time, why the hell are they so quiet on this...

"rental & rent to own is a joke for a pc" never knew anyone that rented a PC you'd be better of buying one and paying monthly if you can't afford it. Barrow money from somewhere else and buy a real computer. from a real store.

the whole rental/rent-to-own industry is based around extracting money from poor people with bad/no credit who can't qualify for the payment plan on a Dell budget box and don't know about craigslist.

Because there is a difference in the creepiness level if that were the case. Also, I just know if there are naked adults, there are also chances for seeing unclothed kids. My boys love running around the house after bath time in less than full clothes. Would I want someone looking at me? Of course not, I'd be pissed. Would I want someone looking at my sons? FUCK no, I'm coming after you like Dexter to take care of the garbage. They won't find your body. It's a parental gene that gets triggered.

Oh dear. You better not go to the beach then, because you'll see naked kids.

Yeah let's all start videotaping people through their windows or installing spyware on everyone's computers because:

"Oh dear. You better not go to a beach or a nudist colony because it's available and you'll see naked people."

Me personally have never seen a naked kid at the beach or pool. If there is an accident it's just that, an accident and not intentional and rectified as soon as possible. People have an expectation of privacy in their homes. Some adults are naked or partially naked at the beach, does not mean they have indefinitely forfeited their right to privacy when they want it and you now own all access to everything in their life. Also this is the in the States where even those types of places are very rare so take the culture into account so you don't even have that tiny bit to hold onto.

I've seen a lot of bad arguments in my life but bro you take the cake for at least the last 6 months, maybe more.

This is a horrible story, and some people probably should go to jail (not sure who-- was it the individual store managers who abused their power?). The FTC settlement seems like a slap on the wrist, too. However, the FTC, as I understand it, only has civil enforcement powers, not criminal. So they don't have the ability to put people in jail. If they want people in jail, the best they can do is turn the info over to the US Attorney's office and/or the local state's/district attorney that does have criminal jurisdiction.

Yeah let's all start videotaping people through their windows or installing spyware on everyone's computers because:

"Oh dear. You better not go to a beach or a nudist colony because it's available and you'll see naked people."

Me personally have never seen a naked kid at the beach or pool. If there is an accident it's just that, an accident and not intentional and rectified as soon as possible. People have an expectation of privacy in their homes. Some adults are naked or partially naked at the beach, does not mean they have indefinitely forfeited their right to privacy when they want it and you now own all access to everything in their life. Also this is the in the States where even those types of places are very rare so take the culture into account so you don't even have that tiny bit to hold onto.

I've seen a lot of bad arguments in my life but bro you take the cake for at least the last 6 months, maybe more.

I think the point is that the violation of privacy is just as severe regardless of the age of the person recorded. Hell, adults do things that are potentially more private and, as they have more to lose, more damaging if exposed. But what matters most is the principle. These fuckers need to be grilled, not let off easily.

This is a horrible story, and some people probably should go to jail (not sure who-- was it the individual store managers who abused their power?). The FTC settlement seems like a slap on the wrist, too. However, the FTC, as I understand it, only has civil enforcement powers, not criminal. So they don't have the ability to put people in jail. If they want people in jail, the best they can do is turn the info over to the US Attorney's office and/or the local state's/district attorney that does have criminal jurisdiction.

Yes, they have civil authority. So, umm, where's the massive damage fines? More pain is being dished out to people who freaking shared a few dozen songs on-line. These guys committed fraud on an epic scale. Even down to using fake registration screens for popular software to collect personal information and spy on users with the PC's webcam.

What we have here is the equivalent of the parent telling their mischievous child, "Now don't do that again, sweetie". With no consequence there's no reason for the child not to act out again when they think mom and dad aren't watching.

I can only hope that a metric ton of angry people sue the crap out of these folks. As that seems like the only way any justice will be meted. Right now the FTC is essentially saying that if you're poor or credit challenged, they don't really care if some company takes advantage of you. That's the message I get anyhow.

Un-fscking-believable. Jail time and a gazilllion-dollar fine per violation, and because I can, I'm defining each individual picosecond that this software was active as a separate punishable violation. And that's per computer, of course.

At what point does a violation of privacy become such a gross violation that one qualifies for the death penalty? "...was charged with 178 gajillion counts of Invasion of Privacy With Special Circumstances". (And I mean death penalty in the legal sense, not the parental-gene "you mess with my kid and they'll never find your body" kind of death penalty, of which I am a wholehearted proponent.)